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1. Blacks, Jews, and Race-Thinking in the Three Kings of Cologne

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1. Blacks, Jews, and Race-Thinking in the Three Kings of Cologne Race and Conversion in Late Medieval England by Cord J. Whitaker Department of English Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Fiona Somerset, Supervisor ___________________________ David Aers ___________________________ Sarah Beckwith ___________________________ Ruth Nissé Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English in the Graduate School of Duke University 2009 ABSTRACT Race and Conversion in Late Medieval England by Cord J. Whitaker Department of English Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Fiona Somerset, Supervisor ___________________________ David Aers ___________________________ Sarah Beckwith ___________________________ Ruth Nissé An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English in the Graduate School of Duke University 2009 Copyright by Cord J. Whitaker 2009 Abstract Despite general consensus among scholars that race in the West is an early modern phenomenon that dates to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, late medieval English texts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries expend no small amount of effort depicting the differences between people—individuals and groups—and categorizing those people accordingly. The contexts for the English literary concern with human difference were the Crusades and associated economic expansion and travel into Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Scholars who have argued that race is present in medieval texts have generally claimed that race is subordinate to religion, the dominant cultural force in medieval Europe. In “Race and Conversion in Late Medieval England,” I argue that race is not necessarily subordinate to religion. Rather, racial and religious discourses compete with one another for ideological dominance. I examine three texts, juxtaposed in only one extant manuscript, London, British Library, MS Cotton Vespasian E.16; The Three Kings of Cologne, The Siege of Jerusalem, and the physiognomy portion of the Secretum Secretorum together narrate competition between race and religion as community-forming ideologies in England through their treatments of religious identity and physical characteristics. In addition, I study Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale, which distills down questions of religious difference to genealogy and the interpretation of blood. “Race and Conversion in Late Medieval England” argues that racial ideology emerges from and competes with religion in late medieval English literature as a means iv of consolidating power in crusading Western Europe, even as the ever present possibility of Christian conversion threatens to undermine the essentializing work of race. v Dedication For Dad, who taught me to write; for Grandma, who taught me to love; and for Chris, who taught me to laugh. vi Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... iv List of Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... x Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 The Cotton Vespasian E.16 Manuscript .................................................................................... 1 This Dissertation’s Purpose ....................................................................................................... 5 Relevant Approaches to Race and Conversion ......................................................................... 8 1. Blacks, Jews, and Race-Thinking in the Three Kings of Cologne ............................................. 22 Jaspar, the Nestorians, and Blackness ..................................................................................... 29 The Uses (and Instability) of Africa in the European World .................................................. 47 Race-Thinking, Eastern Christians, and Jews ......................................................................... 58 2. Redirecting the Physiognomer’s Gaze in the Secretum Secretorum .......................................... 71 Versions ................................................................................................................................... 74 The Text, Its Reader, and Its Science ...................................................................................... 78 Doubt, Exemplum, and Other-Directedness ............................................................................ 86 The Significance of Skin in Abbreviated Physiognomies ....................................................... 95 Physiognomy and Race ......................................................................................................... 107 3. Making Blood Speak: Romans, Jews, and Race War in the Siege of Jerusalem ..................... 112 Who’s Who in the Siege of Jerusalem? ................................................................................. 118 The Rational Conversion of the Romans ............................................................................... 121 Tolerance and Violence ......................................................................................................... 136 vii Criticizing Race War through Christian Hospitality ............................................................. 153 The Peculiarities of MS Cotton Vespasian E.16 ................................................................... 172 4. Blood and Baptism in Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale .............................................................. 177 Why Blood? ........................................................................................................................... 181 Interpreting Genealogical Blood ........................................................................................... 192 Interpreting Holy Blood ........................................................................................................ 199 Racializing Interpretive Strategies ........................................................................................ 212 Conclusion: Real and Metaphorical Color in Late Medieval English Literature ......................... 219 References .................................................................................................................................... 229 Biography ..................................................................................................................................... 238 viii List of Abbreviations MS………..manuscript CV………..London, British Library, MS Cotton Vespasian E.16 PL……….. J.P. Migne, Patrologiae Cursus Completus Series Latina (Paris: 1844-5). R7………...London, British Library, MS Royal 18.A.7 R10……….London, British Library, MS Royal 18.A.10 SPGL…….. Richard Foerster, ed., Scriptores Physiognomonici Graeci et Latini, Vol. 2 (Stuttgart/Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1994). ix Acknowledgements It has been a struggle to decide whether or not to write acknowledgments. In short, this dissertation is the product of too many sets of comments, too many conversations, and too many encouraging words. There is no way I can mention all the people who have helped and inspired me along the way. Fiona Somerset is a powerful force, some might say a triply powerful force. First of all, her attention to detail could put most senior editors to shame. Secondly, her ability to care about her students’ personal welfare while demanding they produce ever better results means that I have felt at once cared for and corrected, treated with humanity and assiduously instructed. Finally, Fiona’s boundless energy has inspired me to keep running even when I felt I could run no more. When Fiona told me that she “believed” in this dissertation, I knew that no matter how hard it got, no matter how much life got in the way, I had to reach the finish line. There was no other option. Teacher, coach, and conductor—Fiona fills all of these roles with grace befitting an angel, the kind of angel that never fails to bring you life-sustaining manna during a long sojourn in the desert. Sarah Beckwith and David Aers have supported my growth as a scholar, and as a person, in ways I never expected when I came to Duke. They have counseled me through trials and traumas, through relationships broken and mended. When I have felt myself nearly crushed by the weighty pressures of professional and personal life, David and Sarah have always been ready to recommend salves for the mind, body, and soul. As x different as their advice has sometimes been, the results have always managed to coalesce into perfect harmony. Just when I was convinced that working with the Siege of Jerusalem would be the death of me, Ruth Nissé swept in from the University of Nebraska with a fresh perspective and a much needed encouraging smile. Her supreme knowledge of the Jewish Middle Ages and her unparalleled insight into medieval Jewish-Christian relations, coupled with her no-nonsense approach to literary analysis, completely revolutionized my relationship with the Siege. No longer did the poem seem to me an impenetrable fortress. Instead,
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